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"Right," I said, tipsy from all these wonders, "nothing to it!" After passing the well of the companionway that led to the platform, I saw a cabin 2 meters long in which Conseil and Ned Land, enraptured with their meal, were busy devouring it to the last crumb. Then a door opened into the galley, 3 meters long and located between the vessel's huge storage lockers.
"If master faces these sharks," Conseil said, "I think his loyal manservant should face them with him!" A Pearl Worth Ten Million NIGHT FELL. I went to bed. I slept pretty poorly. Man-eaters played a major role in my dreams. And I found it more or less appropriate that the French word for shark, requin, has its linguistic roots in the word requiem.
"Then we aren't returning to Paris?" Conseil asked. "Yes, we are . . . certainly . . . ," I replied evasively, "but after we make a detour." "Whatever detour master wishes." "Oh, it's nothing really! A route slightly less direct, that's all. We're leaving on the Abraham Lincoln." "As master thinks best," Conseil replied placidly.
"No doubt, sir, but the error will be under 100 meters, and that's close enough for us. Until tomorrow then." Captain Nemo went back on board. Conseil and I stayed behind until five o'clock, surveying the beach, observing and studying. The only unusual object I picked up was an auk's egg of remarkable size, for which a collector would have paid more than 1,000 francs.
"Bah!" said Conseil, philosophically; "we can hold out some time yet." "My friends," I said, "we must not despair. We have been worse off than this. Do me the favour to wait a little before forming an opinion upon the commander and crew of this boat." "My opinion is formed," replied Ned Land, sharply. "They are rascals." "Good! and from what country?" "From the land of rogues!"
But I did not reckon on an accidental meeting which delayed our arrival for some time. I had remained some steps behind, when I presently saw Captain Nemo coming hurriedly towards me. With his strong hand he bent me to the ground, his companion doing the same to Conseil.
"Secundo," Conseil went on, "the abdominals, whose pelvic fins hang under the abdomen to the rear of the pectorals but aren't attached to the shoulder bone, an order that's divided into five families and makes up the great majority of freshwater fish. Examples: carp, pike." "Ugh!" the Canadian put in with distinct scorn. "You can keep the freshwater fish!"
Our progress was swift. You could feel it in the vibrations of the long steel hull. Near two o'clock in the morning, I went to snatch a few hours of sleep. Conseil did likewise. I didn't encounter Captain Nemo while going down the gangways. I assumed that he was keeping to the pilothouse. The next day, March 19, at five o'clock in the morning, I was back at my post in the lounge.
The two men held a quick exchange in their incomprehensible language, and either the chief officer had been alerted previously or he found the plan feasible, because he showed no surprise. But as unemotional as he was, he couldn't have been more impeccably emotionless than Conseil when I told the fine lad our intention of pushing on to the South Pole.
I showed Conseil the position of this long reef on our chart of the Mediterranean. "But with all due respect to master," Conseil ventured to observe, "it's like an actual isthmus connecting Europe to Africa."
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